Judges back two British boys who refuse to live in France

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Two boys who hated living in France so much they asserted their Britishness and refused to return to live there with their mother have been granted their wish by senior judges.

In a highly unusual case, Lord Justice Thorpe, one of three judges sitting at the Court of Appeal in London, said that the desire of the brothers, aged 11 and 16, to live in England deserved to be respected and overrode even the wishes of their own mother.

Describing the case as “not just exceptional but very exceptional”, the judge said that the boys’ French mother had taken them